Day 2: Your Holy Name {The Lord’s Prayer}
Holy. Hallowed. Sacred.
These words conjure up images of neatly-praying hands, bowed heads, hushed words, & cathedrals. Yet most of us wonder, What does ‘holy’ really mean?
Being in the second line of the Lord’s Prayer signifies its importance, but we can’t give it proper respect when we don’t understand its meaning. Before delving in, though, let’s take a quick look at Jesus’s famous prayer:
Pray like this:
‘Our Father in heaven,
may Your name be kept holy.
May Your Kingdom come soon.
May Your will be done on earth,
as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need,
and forgive us our sins,
as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation,
but rescue us from the evil one.’— Matthew 6 (New Living Translation)
Some of the ways The Free Dictionary defines “holy” include:
1. Belonging to, derived from, or associated with a divine power; sacred
2. Regarded with veneration or specified for a religious purpose
3. Regarded as deserving special respect or reverence
4. Dedicated or devoted to the service of God, the church, or religion
5. Saintly; pious; devout
6. Having a spiritually pure quality
7. Inspiring fear, awe, or distress
Purity, sacredness, devotion, reverence. Maybe this is a great place to start our Lord’s Prayer after all!
When we begin praying, it’s so powerful for us to realize WHO we are speaking to — not just anyone, but to the Divine! This keeps us humble and opens the floodgates of God’s ears to us, as Psalm 138:6 reveals:
For though the LORD is high, He regards the lowly,
but the haughty He knows from afar.
OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN, MAY YOUR NAME BE KEPT HOLY.
Beginning every prayer in light of God’s holy nature and His worthiness of our highest respect checks our egos at the door, while simultaneously giving us greater access to Him. It also encourages us that we’re talking to a Father who can do all things — He’s a big deal! This perspective boosts our faith and gives added strength and power to our prayers.
The Lord’s Prayer doesn’t just allude to His holiness — it says His very NAME is holy & we are to keep it that way. This reminds me of a very important Proverb for us believers…
The name of the Lord is a strong tower;
The righteous run to it and are safe.
— Proverbs 18:10
His name is so powerful that we end every prayer with it {in Jesus’s name}. Scripture calls His ‘the Name above all names’, a name that every knee will bow to one day. In the OT, God told Moses His name {& thus, His character} in a profound moment in biblical history. Most importantly, it’s by His name that we are saved!
Is it any wonder, then, that abusing God’s name was breaking one of His 10 Commandments? Or that Jesus encourages us — in His most quoted prayer — to start with reverencing His Father’s name?
Remembering that His very name, nature, and character is HOLY is a great starting place for our prayers. When we lose sight of this, we forget the power that lies in just speaking His name after our requests.
Every time we pray, we’re speaking to a perfectly holy — pure — divine — sacred — respected — exalted Father. He is not flawed, nor are His answers to our requests anything short of perfect because He Himself is perfect, truly above us.
This is a hard lesson and a deep one, but we must let it sink in: God is perfection, His ways are better than ours because His vantage point is so much higher. He doesn’t see our situation through a dirty lens — He sees through the eyes of purity, a point-of-view completely untainted by sin.
Remember this next time you sit to talk with Him. You’re talking to Someone much higher than you or I, with no agenda but goodness for your life. This mental shift is an important step towards us living daily in freedom.